An Ado-Ekiti High Court, on Thursday, sentenced a 55-year-old father, Mr Bashiru Adeyanju, to 14 years imprisonment for attempted rape on 17-year-old daughter without an option of fine.
The court found the defendants guilty of the offence of attempted rape of his daughter due to his confessional statement and witnesses called during the trial.
The presiding judge, Justice Monisola Abodunde, however, did not find him guilty of the offence of serial rape which he was also charged with.
Justice Abodunde said after listening to both prosecution and defence counsels, saying that the prosecution had proved his case beyond reasonable doubt and established the case of attempted rape of his daughter.
“The Court found you guilty as charged, but based on the plea of the defence counsel, describing him as a first offender, he is hereby sentenced to fourteen years imprisonment,” she added.
She added that the three years he had already spent in jail should be removed from the jail term.
Earlier, prosecution counsel, Mr Wale Fapohunda, who is the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the state said that the convict committed the offences on September10, 2017, at Irona Street in Ado-Ekiti.
He added that the convict on the said date unlawfully attempted to have sexual intercourse with his daughter (name withheld)
According to him, the victim said that his father had started having sexual intercourse with her since she was ten years old, she said that her father always gives her drugs to prevent pregnancy and threatened to kill her if she tells anyone.
Fapohunda said that the offences contravened Sections 358 and 359 of the Criminal Code Law, Cap C 16, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.
The prosecution called five witnesses and tendered exhibits including pictures, statements of the convict and the victim.
On his part, the defence counsels, Mr Yinka Opaleke, who called one witness pleaded for leniency, praying the court should temper justice with mercy with his client as he was a first time offender.
